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Cyanonegative Photography: The Science of a New Antiquarian Art

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The staff of the
Barlow Planetarium and the Weis Earth Science Museum, at the campus of
the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley, are pleased to present the first
of their Science/Art Fusion exhibits. “Cyanonegative Photography:
The Science of a New Antiquarian Art,” by John Beaver, Associate
Professor of Physics at UWFox. The exhibit features explanatory texts,
displays and photographs and is scheduled to be on view from November
5, 2004, through January 31, 2005 in the Curler Science Gallery, adjacent
to the planetarium on the UWFox campus.

A reception, which is open to the public, is scheduled to be held in
the Gallery from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, November 12. The Science/Art
Fusion project was funded, in part, by the Opportunity Fund of the Community
Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, Inc.

Beaver’s
work integrates techniques from two centuries — the cyanotype photographic
printing process invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842 and 21st century
digital photography. Using coated paper and a solution of light-sensitive
salts, the cyanotype process produces a rich blue positive image after
exposure to sunlight. Beaver employs this process in reverse, creating
“cyanonegatives” with a variety of homemade cameras. He produces
a positive image by scanning the negatives on a computer, which alters
the color from blue to sepia.

As a photographer and physics professor, Beaver says, "I have always
been fascinated by the beyond-the-snapshot possibilities of photography.
For much of my photography I use a unique process that combines cyanotype
– one of the oldest of photographic processes - with homemade cameras
and modern digital scanning and printing.

"Traditionally, cyanotype has been used only for making contact
prints from large-format negatives. With the advent of modern digital
scanning and printing technology, I discovered that it is now possible
to use this process directly in the camera, as the negative ‘film’
itself. Since normal camera lenses block the kind of light cyanotype responds
to, I have to make my own cameras for what I call Cyanonegative Photography,”
Beaver explains.

“The
paper negative image that results is then scanned and digitally reversed
and printed. Color reversal turns the strident Prussian Blue of the cyanotype
original to amber and sepia tones. I am especially drawn to the painterly
qualities of this photographic process, to the odd combination of the
new and the antiquarian, and to the magnification of tiny, non-photographic
details. It appeals to my inner nerdy-child-peering-at-pond-scum-through-a-microscope,"
he said.

UWFox Associate Professor of Art Judith Baker describes Beaver’s
photographs as “beautiful, enchanting, intriguing and mysterious.”
She notes that his “contemporary, meaningful art” will surely
raise questions “regarding both the meaning of the images and the
process used in making them.” This exhibit will provide some of
the answers about the process Beaver used.